Anyone know how to make scale Pine trees?

[tr1ckey66]

Hi everyone

Wondered if anyone had a system for making fir trees? I seem to remember an article in Tamiya magazine way back but I don't have the issue. I have a way of making deciduous trees (see pics of my king tiger/sdkfz 250 diorama) that is, I think, quite convincing but pine trees are completely different.

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Cheers guys

Paul

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[Guest]

Sorry mate i've only ever done palm trees iam sure someone can assist though, by the way nice dio i like it a lot.

scott

[Guest]

Hi again Paul i found this on the net www.scratchbuildersguild.com/scenery/landscaping/259-firtreesfromscratch.

It looks kinda useful

scott

[tr1ckey66]

Cheers Scott.

That link is useful. The steps mentioned there are (I think) aimed at a smaller scale HO, 1/72nd but I believe I can adapt it a bit. They do look effective in that scale so, if anything, it should be easier to scale up (famous last words!). I'm planning to hide my GB 190 in a German forest with some camo nets too. Got some wicked reference from Steve (Stona) and I quite like the idea.

Cheers P

[Guest]

why don't you do a step by step on building the trees as well as the dio, i would be interested in that.

scott

[tr1ckey66]

When I've sussed out the way to go I'll take a few pics to explain what I'm doing. I seem to remember I diorama with fir trees with branches made from asparagus fern (the florist stuff). The way forward may be a bit of a mix of styles to see what is most effective. I'll definitely keep you posted. Still to finish the 190 yet though!

Cheers Scott

[Guest]

I'm sure I saw something about pine trees on the Armourama website-then again it could have been palm trees! The old memory isn't what it used................. What's this? Who am i? ;o)

Patrick (I think!)

[tr1ckey66]

Just had a look at the site and found a few bits and pieces. I think a common mistake on dioramas is the trees are too small. I really do want these fir trees to be BIG - a proper forest not a few xmas trees! I've 2 conifers in my back garden and I wouldn't call those forest trees yet they tower over the roof of the house! I think the trick to this is to get the foliage looking right. I think, if I can get a solution for that then the trees themselves should be straight forward to build. I'll pop along to the 4D model shop to check out some possible raw material for foliage and get some wire for the branches.

Thanks both for the suggestions/directions to reference - it's got me thinking :emo6: I feel a cunning plan coming on!

[Guest]

Paul, Have a look at the link below. Cheers Derek

Creating Realistic Palm Trees

[tr1ckey66]

Thanks Derek. It's a good link but I'm after Pine trees. If I'm ever doing a Pacific Theatre dio though I'll know where to go.:thanx:

[Guest]

I have an article in one of my books on fir trees in 1/35. Unfortunately, as I,m between adresses, all my books are packed away in twelve wine cases. (Packing the books was easy but drinking 144 bottles of wine was a bit of a chore!)

From what I remember it went something like this. The trunks were made by carving a section of wooden dowelling to a taper, gluing dried herbs to it to represent the 'flaky' bark texture and adding the branches from a florists material which i think was dried sedum. The guy made two of these, one healthy and one dead and they both looked really good.

I can't remember the title of the book at the moment; so frustrating as I think I would really be able to help you out with this!

Hopefully in a couple of weeks I,ll be able to unpack and send you the details.

And your work is brilliant!

[tr1ckey66]

Hey Montyman!

That would be wicked if you could pull out that guide - would help a lot. No rush, get yourself settled in to your new gaff and dig your books out when you're ready.

I seem to recall the article in Tamiya Mag going someway down the lines you describe. I may try a variety of different techniques to see what works best.

I'm glad you like my work and thank you for the kind words. As I've said previously I'm really looking forward to seeing your 1/72 stuff. I've been thinking about how to scratch build a 1/72 Normandy hamlet like Bras, Grentheville or Hubert-Folie. I've also been trying to figure out what the best quality figures are - I've got some Preiser figures which are top notch but the WW2 range is limited to Germans only. Any ideas?

Finally, the next time I move house I'll do it your way - completely drunk!

Cheers mate

Paul

[Guest]

It would be an amazing thing to scratch build a hamlet but surely, even at 1:72 scale, a mile is 73 odd feet so for a very small hamlet you are still looking at a board 15 feet square to represent 1/4 of mile square. What a project!!!!!

[tr1ckey66]

Mmmmm, 15' square is a bit too big - might have to rethink that one a bit! lol! I was thinking more along the lines of 5' square which I've just worked out to be roughly 120 yards in reality which is nowhere near enough. I'm going to have to reign the ambition in a bit i think. What I really wanted to do was illustrate realistic distances that tanks and AT guns fired upon each other and seeing as this could be up to 1000 yards I've no chance. I've just placed two 1/72 tanks at opposite ends of my computer desk (which is roughly 5' long) and although they don't look ridiculously close it still looks a bit unlikely. Oh well, I think I can still get quite a bit on a 5' board - just wanted a sense of the battle unfolding with as much emphasis on the topography of the land as the individual models.

Sorry - I really didn't think that one through!:fool: (again!)

[Guest]

Well, by airing your concept on here and getting feedback is a form of thinking it through. As for close quarter combat, the terrain is the limiter. Although AT and tanks would love to engage at their longest effective range (the longer range weapon then stands the chance of being the victor), this all goes to pot when something gets in the way. The Bocage in France was tactically a nightmare for tanks and tactical heaven for anti tank. No matter what weapons were used, the thinking had to be 'on the hoof'. The same goes these days for troops in Iraq where urban warfare made the huge range of modern weapons all but useless. The same happened in Stalingrad, tanks were often firing at targets tens of yards away rather that the thousand that they were capable of.

So, to get to your 5' square board which equates to 360 feet, allow artistic license and call that 600' and you are in business if there are enough obstacles in the way. Given WWII technology, you could still have a good looking scene based around a hunter/hunted or ambush setup about to be triggered. If you concentrate on limiting line of site you will be on a winner. However, in reality, when tanks found themselves in such conditions, the ideal would be to have infantry move in first and ensure it is safe for the armour to move up. Totally the opposite of how the infantry would have preferred it I am sure.

So, given license to expand the true 360 feet of your 5 foot board to represent 600 feet, you could easily have the outskirts of your defended (or is it?) hamlet with the first elements of a weakly supported armoured unit approaching an unknown quantity. At the opposite edge of the board could be the first layers of defence, a heavily camouflaged AT unit, maybe a small AT gun actually inside a house.

I think there is lots of possibilities so long as you remember it is a model and not reality so compressing distance is no crime, it is art. Go for it, there will be many opportunities to build some really good scenery.